Odds and Ends

1. Don’t forget that this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop topic is Paths and Walkways. If you missed the original announcement, or if you want to participate but have forgotten how it works, you can find the original post here. We’ll be posting a wrap-up of this month’s topic on November 30 and announcing the next one (as well as the winner of this month’s little incentive) on December 1.

2. A few weeks back, I posted some information here about applying for a “Small Lots of Seed” permit from the USDA, for those of you who are interested in buying garden seeds from overseas suppliers. As a follow-up, I wanted to report that I mailed in my own application on November 4 and received the permit on November 20: not a bad turn-around time. Now, I need to get up the nerve to actually try using it. Have any of you already gotten one and successfully ordered seeds? If so, please let us know!

3. A little bit of bragging: The photo above shows a collection of veggies that I gathered a few days ago and passed along to Mom for Thanksgiving dinner, including ‘Carnival’ and ‘Buttercup’ squash, celeriac, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, and ‘Shelta’ mini-cabbages. Not the most bountiful harvest, perhaps, but also not bad for a veggie novice, I think. I’ve been growing various vegetables as ornamentals for years, but this is the first growing season that I really caught on to the whole growing-to-eat thing, and it’s been a terrific experience. I can’t believe I ever thought vegetable gardening was boring! (Ah, as I suspected, this confirms me as a gardening geek, with bonus points, according to Carol at May Dreams Gardens’ “You Might Be a Gardening Geek: Thanksgiving Edition.”)

4. At this time for giving thanks, we here at Gardening Gone Wild would like to extend a heartfelt thank-you all of you who have been reading, commenting, and generally making us feel so welcome here in the garden-blogging community. It’s been great getting to know all of you.

Nan gardens on 4 acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In the firm belief that every garden ought to have a pretentious-sounding (or at least pretentious-looking) name, she refers to her home grounds as "Hayefield." There, she experiments with a wide variety of plants and planting styles, from cottage gardens and color-based borders to managed meadows, naturalistic plantings, and veggies--all under the watchful eyes of her two pet alpacas, Daniel and Duncan.

And now I’m going to be thankful for gardening blogs and gardening bloggers (yet again) because it allows me to pick the brains of people I would otherwise never be able to meet in real life: So tell me, how do you cook kohlrabi and how does it taste? My grandpa used to grow it and loved it, and I was extremely tempted to try it this year for just that reason… but I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into and had nobody to ask!

Um…to be honest, I’ve never actually cooked it. We just peel it, cut it into cross-wise slabs for munching directly or into cubes or strips for salads. The texture is crisp, like a raw potato, but the flavor is much sweeter, almost like an apple. The plants are easy to grow and look really cool. I especially like the looks of the purple ‘Kolibri’, but both the purple and white kinds look the same once you remove the skins, and I think they taste pretty much the same. Do try a half-dozen or so next spring to see if you like them; if you do, then plant a bunch more in mid- to late summer for fall snacking!

See? I would have assumed that you had to cook it like a root vegetable! lol. (I remember my grandfather growing them, but never remember how he ate them.)

I thought it would be kind of turnip-y… but now you have me thinking it might taste more like jicama and/or be good in a slaw. In any case, I’m intrigued and will definitely be trying some next year. Thanks, Nancy!